Chewy caramels

Ingredients

500 gm white sugar

500 ml (2 cups) pouring cream

120 gm golden syrup

50 gm butter, coarsely chopped

Scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean

Method

Main

1

Stir sugar, cream, golden syrup, butter and vanilla seeds in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and cook, brushing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to dissolve sugar crystals, until mixture reaches 122C on a sugar thermometer (10-12 minutes). If you don’t have a sugar thermometer, drop a little mixture into a glass of iced water. It should form a firm ball. Remove from heat, dip pan in cold water to stop cooking, stir in 1 tsp sea salt flakes and pour into a 20cm square tin lined with buttered baking paper. Stand until firm (3-4 hours), then cut into fingers with a hot knife. Wrap in cellophane or baking paper and twist ends to seal. Chewy caramels will keep in an airtight container in a cool place for 5 days. In hot weather, they’re best kept refrigerated.